Good evening everyone. This is the community preservation committee regular meeting. It is Thursday, March 19th, 2026. Uh we are in person on the lower level of town hall and also available via Zoom. It is
5:02 p.m. We can all Oh, this meeting is being recorded and can be viewed at a later date on the Town of Dayton YouTube channel. We could all rise for the pledge of >> allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Start off with committee member introductions. I am Kevin Smith, chair and parks and recreation representative. >> Alicia Wilson, vice chair, member at large. >> And Higgins, planning board representative.
>> Jack's historical commission. Kathy Perry, um, housing, >> Jonathan Gail, ADA coordinator. >> That's all us for now. Uh, Dave Eerson is going to join us. He said, he's just running a little bit late. Uh the first
order of business we have is to review, discuss, and act to approve the prior uh meeting minutes. And Elizabeth had sent those over to us. >> I just had some spelling, Elizabeth. >> Sure. >> My name is has that I J A I L E S.
>> Okay. >> And then Tim Ry. >> I always spell those wrong. >> R H I N S. >> R H I N. >> Yep. >> All right. and I'll fix it and then >> Okay. >> Yeah. Well, we can make a we can just
make a motion to approve as amended >> as amended if somebody is >> make that motion. >> I'll second >> motion made and seconded. What was the just what was the date on that? Was it January? >> Yeah. >> 20th
>> January 15th. Motion made and seconded to approve the January >> 15 >> meeting minutes. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I >> I
motion passes unanimously. Uh financial reports. Um we can circle back to that when Dave when Dave gets here. There shouldn't be any updates. I know one thing that I did see though, uh, Stuart Sagenov from the Community Preservation Coalition did send out an update about
the, um, matching funds. I don't know, did you guys all see that correspondence? >> So, we kind of know what to expect in those, but that usually we don't get that until like November, but it kind of at least gives us a idea of which direction we're going to trend in, kind of matching funds we're going to get
from the state. Um, other than that, I don't think there's a whole lot to report on anything, but we'll circle back to that. Um, so under old business, we have review and discuss, uh, CPC project updates. Um, for from a parks and wreck perspective,
um, the Ryan's playground, we still have just like the last little finishing touches that we spoke about last time we we met, signage, placing the mats. Um, and then we'll have that wrapped up where uh we talked about that last month in the parks and rec commission meeting
about uh well at that point we were buried in a quite a bit of snow so like pumping our brakes on >> making any serious plans for that. Um but that's on our radar to get wrapped up and then we we're actually going to do like a dedication and ribbon cutting
ceremony for that as well. Um I did get some correspondence actually from Jeff Kavalo, the former chair of the trails committee and um there's some kind of things happening with um some other community groups to
that the whole like Taton River corridor. there's like a a larger kind of feasibility study and like uh pathways study being done to connect like I think we're they're kind of circling back to the original plan of connecting you know being able to connect Taunt through Dyon to Somerset
with the whole trails network and things like that. So um >> kind of been very quiet for a while. >> It had it had been it got very quiet after Jeff left trails. Um, and I think like the committee itself was just kind of sorting things out and trying to
figure out what their path was forward. So, we haven't really got any updates on like the Broad Cove Nature Trail project, but it sounds like there's some other um entities coming into the fold that might help kind of push that along and get that back on track. So, I'll keep you all updated if and when I get
any additional updates on that. Um, Dan, did you see that as well? Because there was some planning board like crossover in there, too. >> He's talking about the Route 138 review. >> Yes. Yes. which is through a serpent grant. >> Okay. >> And it is um pedestrian traffic along
138 looking at um it's not really at an economic group development level. It's more pedestrian and trails related, but they are kicking that off sometime later this year, I believe. >> Okay. Excellent.
I don't I don't think I have anything else to you guys. Um we have the draft of nomination for Mount Hope finishing company village and um birthday from
from Stacy Spies a preservationist. So the commission is reviewing that and um the mass historical commission will be sent the same draft and they will review it too. So we're moving >> sir.
anything on from how anything going on or anything in the pipeline for housing that you're aware of? >> No. Okay. >> Winding down on a few things. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um so next up we just have we have
review not really act but just review and discuss Dan Lions Club this Statfield project. I didn't know Dan if you wanted to kind of just give a little like a roundabout update. >> Yeah. So, the Lions did sign a contract with the Conway School, which is a graduate school for landscape design out
in Northampton. So, they agreed to do it. Um, they've expanded the scope about what they're looking at because they wanted to make it a substantial enough project to engage a master's degree student trying to work on this. Um, but as far as the Lions are concerned, it's
focused still on the uh on replacing the the bleachers as the deliverable for for this. They'll kick that off in April, probably wrap up their design studies by late June, July. So, the next step of that would be to
solicit based upon the design some concrete um um specs and construction costs going into the special if you wanted to bring up their um based upon whatever numbers would be u being
proposed. Yeah, thanks for getting the ball rolling. Have you >> heard from them yet when they're thinking of having a first meeting with those of us who were involved? >> Um, only to say beginning of April, but no specific date. >> Thank you for doing that.
>> Next, we have the one to my side. review discussed and act the CPC annual public meeting had a huge like conundrum snafu with meeting space and time and a miscommunication with a couple a couple
different folks upstairs who were under the impression that we're going to they were going to need multiple meeting spaces for pincom and border selectman you know budget meetings and so on and so forth so and originally I thought it was this month that they needed to they asked if we could move
them actually they wanted us to ship this earlier and then like at the 11th hour they're like no you're good but with that being said they wanted us to ship this earlier so they could slide another kind of lengthy meeting in immediately after us. I was like I guess
just do what we got to do. So I I I paused the posting with the Gazette for that reason. However, it was actually April that that it lines up with our April meeting that they need to have this special meeting. It wasn't today. So,
which I found that out I think Monday afternoon cuz we were trying to like figure out why like why things were messed up with Zoom links and the schedule and everything else. So, it's actually a our April meeting that we potentially
might have to if we have nothing lengthy or no business to discuss, we can just kind of, you know, forgo our meeting. Actually, well, we may have things to discuss depending on something later in our in our agenda, but I think to to be quote unquote safe, if we just push till
May, >> regroup cuz at that point, we'll be done and over with with like the warrant for town meeting, everything will already be published at that point or close to being published. So, we kind of take all those special, you know, special
meetings out of the equation. Sorry, I got stuck in a call. >> That's okay. It's working out perfect because we're we're almost to you anyway. So, we didn't even have to rearrange anything. >> Even better. >> So, as long as that's okay with everyone
to just push and we'll line it up with our May meeting, which would be May 21st. I suppos I guess it would be appropriate to make a motion to hold reschedule the >> That would also be our public meeting.
Yes. So, just I think we'll keep it the same um with the same kind of uh intent that we had originally that we'll hold our regular meeting prior to and then segue into the annual public meeting.
>> Make a motion to move the annual public meeting to May the 21st. >> I'll second. >> Motion made and seconded. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor >> I >> I
>> passes unanimously. Amen. >> All right. New business. Review, discuss, and act application of eligibility for the town clerk's uh vital record uh historic preservation of vital record books which was submitted
on March 9th by town clerk. >> Hi. So, if you want to give us just kind of a brief >> I know we've done a project like this before, but yeah, we you can give us kind of a brief overview of what we're looking at. >> Yeah. So, um a few couple years ago, um
Mark Pico um did a CPC money request a CPC money for um eight books. Um, so I wanted to go through and double check um our rest of our eight books that we have right now cuz I was looking to conserve,
reproduce, and digitize um all of these books. However, going through them, out of the eight books that I have, six of them are the are ones that actually really do need to be um preserved. Um
they're they do get a lot of use and I would like to put them in as permanent record in our vault down here. Um and then use the reproduction upstairs for when people want to do genealogology or when we're looking through the books
going forward because they do get used a lot and I notice that the bindings are going um some of the pages you're now getting smudged. Um, and I just think that it's something that is a permanent vital record and I think we should
definitely have it um preserved uh permanently down here. And yeah, so I'm asking for the little higher than um what was previously um done by the uh previous town clerk just
to do the eight books. Um actually six books and just getting um two protective boxes for the others. Um it's the cost was 58,000 and that is a total cost. Um that's with shipping, picking them up.
That's with um project setups and everything. Um so that's conserving reproduction protective boxes and imaging um on six of the books and protective boxes on the other two.
Right. I think I I may have a couple qu just a couple questions for us to discuss amongst ourselves and probably Pat would know the best. Is this exa is this exactly what happened in when Mark did it? And Sher might know as well, but is this exactly what happened when Mark did it? >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. >> Oh, so which books did Mark do? >> So he did the first So there's a total of 16 books. Um and he also did a proprietor's record. So he did seven
books and their proprietor. So I was looking through for books eight through the 16. Um but then going through them um there's six of them that are in dire need of you know just reproducing. Um,
two of the indexes I decided that um because the cost would have gone up even more, but two of the indexes, which we don't use often, are actually in pretty decent shape that I feel like I don't really need to reproduce them. But I
would like to just get protective boxes for those two. Those two indexes that she's talking about, one of them is actually laminated. >> Mhm. So someone at some point in time decided to preserve it that way, which is not the
way to preserve and archive records. So that even to try and digitize and have the company work with would probably be even more than the rest of them. >> Yeah. >> So with that lamination on it and in an archival box, it should be fine. And the
other one was in good condition. >> Can these books stand what time periods? So they are from the 1899 to 2003. So the one that goes up to 2003, it does start um earlier, you know what I mean?
So it's not like it's 2003 to now or anything. So it's that's what it goes up to. So the we're looking for the birth uh marriages um and one of the death books. So yeah.
>> Yeah. I'm sorry I came in late. Bran Sedron, I'm one of the members here. Um, are these going to be online once they're digitized? >> So, we can put them online. We do need um someone actually to do that. So, we
actually kind of wanted to see if we can request um even cable to kind of go in and show us if like there's any kind of >> spot where I can put it like cloud or something. But we would like to do that so that way people can do their own
genealogy file. >> Okay. >> Problem with that is it takes up a lot of server space. You have to have an adequate server to do that. >> That's unfortunate. >> The Bristol County Registry of Deeds has things going way back. Of course, they
have probably all the space they need, you know, but it's cool to look at some of the old stuff even though it's hard to read the writings. Does the state offer any grants to fill out vital records or anything like that to supplement any of its credential?
>> So, I was kind of looking through and I I couldn't really like everything I saw was go to CPC, you know, like things like that, like ask CPC for the money um for historical documents. I mean,
I kind of piggybacked off of what the previous top clerk did do. Um they NEDCC did a fantastic job. They they came in, they looked at all the books. Um they'll actually pick the books up. They'll do
all their things. And then they're really good to work with because if there's something that we're looking for that somebody comes and they they need a birth, death, or marriage certificate, they'll actually send that to us. Um so they're a very good company to work with. Um, so I kind of piggybacked off
of what Mark had done. >> So I I didn't really see anything other than like historical um preservation CPC money and and like that. >> So I guess my own thinking is and I'm
going to post this because it needs to be done. I want to be clear with my comments. >> Yeah. But I think and regardless of anything, this wouldn't even become a warrant article until November, >> you know, because of the time frame
involved. So in the interim period, I think it at least for the next couple of months too, especially where we're not no matter what meeting again till May, I think it also does make sense to look at the state and look at the county and see
if there's any potential dollars available through state vital records or or county vital records, >> right? to supplement some of this because there may be because I'm sure a lot of towns are in the exact same position now.
So there may be money that's set aside by the legislature that's worth looking at. I can help you do that if you want me to. >> Yeah, I mean um I can definitely take a look. I didn't see but I can look further into it. >> I just think it's worth exploring. I'm not saying we shouldn't do this because
it has to be done as I said, but I think even if there was like, you know, 10 or $15,000 or 20% available or something like that or they matched it or anything, we don't know until we look. >> Okay. In my experience, >> so far, I haven't come across any
historical grants that deal with the um preserving of records. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I just haven't come across it yet. And I did look and I didn't see anything but you know maybe I dig a little deeper
>> and there may be honestly there may be nothing and we all know money is very tight from our different government bodies right now. But having said that I think since we wouldn't even be discussing this again for two months. I think it's worth doing some homework in
the meantime to at least have some more information on that. I'm going to give you what my hangup is on this and like we already did it once. This is kind of what we do is we do it once and then we have like these questions. >> Preserve.
Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Reproduce and digitize. I'm not sure. Right. Like and I'm just thinking of like when you look at the total cost like all right, how much does it cost to preserve? Because that's what we want to do is preserve a historic resource. the digit the reproduction and
digitizing of that doesn't do anything to preserve the resource other than creating like a digital version. So you don't like I guess that my question is are we trying to preserve the in is are we preserving like the information or
just the document or are we preserving both >> like and I and this is like just we gray area as far as like CP CPA funds are involved that's my only kind of question and I'm trying to look but >> yeah so the only thing I can say is the
conserv conserv um treatments like what You do they so they treat the book to be able to do the reproduction and they treat the book to so that vital record is now no longer going to be used. So
that the one that they reproduce is the only one that we will use going forward. >> So it continues to preserve. >> Yes. The original. >> Okay. That makes that makes sense. >> Yeah. And I understand about the imaging
and and I kind of get that too because maybe if it's something we can look further into with the imaging is that if we can't put it up to the cloud because of space or something like that through here, maybe that's something that we
don't do is digitize it. Maybe we do do the treatment and the reproduction and um the productive boxes, but maybe we don't do the digitization if if we >> Well, and I would say too, yeah, if we don't >> we can't >> I remember we ran into that with
something else like when we switched over the town website, we wanted to store like some sort of information and it was a big deal. I don't think and I don't even think it was anything of that significance. Mhm. >> So like if I had to I guess make one recommendation is because you could
always digitize in future digitize the reproduction, right? >> So like if there's some cost savings that could be done there where we strictly that that makes sense like yeah we we don't want to physically touch this anymore, >> right? >> But we also need to access it, >> right? >> So like if it's part of it
>> and we did we had two problems. Kevin's right when we were looking at putting together the new town's website. We looked at a couple of things and we have access. We have 100 pages right now. >> Yeah. >> Up to 100 pages. If we go more than 100 pages and digitalizing all of this would
take us far beyond 100 pages, >> then the annual cost for the website becomes significantly more expensive as well. >> And the imaging um total imaging on the on the books >> that we're looking at is, you know, $9,750.
So that is something that maybe we can save for right now >> and um just do the treatment and the reproduction and the protective boxes. The protective boxes are what the um original uh vital records would be going into.
>> So I I guess this is going to be a question for the company itself >> is you have to do imaging to reproduce it. So I guess I I guess that I guess that
would be a question is like if if and when we move to the next step is is there an incurred cost for the digit digitization or is it kind of just a byproduct of the imaging anyway? So they just give it to you and it's on some sort of drive >> that is separate >> because I'm just thinking like I'm
looking at that sheet for you know the the kind the quote for this >> and like >> the im cuz it's treatment re reproduction but I'm assuming that the imaging has to be like reproduction to me sounds like the actual printing and the product
>> but like you need to do imaging to reproduce. >> So they have to image it in order to make the reproduction. So if they're doing that, then it's just as easy to digitize at the same time. >> That's right. >> Yeah. >> Well,
>> and digitizing though is slightly different because digitizing is actually making it a searchable >> product. That could be pretty complex handwritten. >> Yeah. >> It's similar to what I said earlier. It's possible that the county or the
commonwealth will provide dollars for digitizing even if not preservation. Okay. So >> it might also be a way to look at um technology grants versus historical preservation where we couldn't find you know I couldn't find that but
>> yeah it does show like on each for each book it does show like optional work housing digital imaging and print reproduction. Yeah. >> And and for storage of this, would it also be something where you could look into conjunction with a library for
ability to store searchable library potentially for >> I was along the same lines, but there are so many particularly genealological societies out there that if you offer them the data, I'm sure they would be willing, we could find somebody that
would be willing to put it online on their side. >> Okay, >> it's online. And it's searchable. It's available. It's not on the town site anymore, but you know, >> but we could >> an option to to make it available once done. >> Okay.
>> The state does right now is in >> the budget for the legislature, there's an enormous amount of money being proposed for cities and towns to become fully accessible through their web-based systems. And that includes digitalizing. And the reason for that is because of
the requirements that are changing >> by April of this year and then for smaller towns like ours, April of next year. So we may have a requirement for anything that we're going to allow access to to be fully digital and fully
accessible using that word by April 24th 27 unless that date gets pushed out. and the state potentially is trying to find ways to fund projects similar to this because they know that town. So whether it makes it through or not, I
I don't know. We'll see where the money looks and what it looks like in June when they really start to get tight on the budget proposals, but there's potentially a lot of dollars available to do things like this, at least for the digital side of it. Yeah, I'll you and I can reach out to each other. Yeah, we
have Yeah. So, I mean I'm at this point too, we're talking about eligibility. I think we can determine that it's eligible and then we can kind of cross the bridge and then you'll move into the uh application for funding and we can kind of cross the
bridge of is there any potential cost savings when we get to that point. >> Everybody's a meal to that. Yeah. And I think u if it were I mean this is you know again still an eligibility phase but if we were to use the historical resource category we would need I think
just like a building we would need Patricia's um um committee to give us a letter. I think that would be no problem at all. >> Yeah I think yeah it would be appropriate to have your >> We did that for Mark too. >> Oh you did? Okay. Yeah.
>> Yeah. I would it would certainly be helpful to have the historical commission's endorsement of the project. >> Right. That's actually I think it's required actually to pack like the pack's got like a scepter and a crown. So >> I knew >> that's why she's here.
This is called >> No, you are right. It does say like that the historic commission should um >> confirm um local historical relevance >> right for projects. >> I don't I'm not so sure that we would
need confirmation of the town's vital records. That's pretty a house that we're not sure about. Yeah. Or a building. >> If the vital records aren't historic. Ain a motion to approve the application of eligibility for the vital records.
>> Second. >> Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I. So yeah, we'll now so in our next meeting we'll um we'll talk about
funding. Um I'm not I not 100% sure Jonathan on your sentiments about timing because like typically like so we would meet in April like if we had business before us and if it winds up correctly where the town warrant annual town
meeting warrant is open then we can get it in for annual. However, if the town meeting >> it closes on closes >> on the 8th of April. >> 8th of April. Yeah. So we that's what I said we won't >> that's for now. I'm thinking of
November. >> Gotcha. Yeah. That's I mean it's a little bit of a tight squeeze. >> Could be. >> Does that include final wording on placeholder? Like you can put something on the warrant as a placeholder with the final warrant
wording not even >> determined until May. >> Correct. >> I don't know what that >> Right. So we can we can certainly put a placeholder. We're going to have placeholders anyway for our budget which we'll have to discuss in April anyhow
now that I'm like really a place on something we haven't voted other than beyond eligibility. So it's >> the problem is it would have to get to print and everything too. Right. Which is No, that's what I'm saying is we're we're going we're going to have CPC placeholders. We do have the
ability if we think if we think that some because there's no obligation with the placeholder is if we wanted to, we could set a a project placeholder and it can it can be extremely vague. It's just a CPC project
placeholder and then if if if we want to be proactive in moving this along rather than waiting Yeah, because like I said like Yeah. So the the warrant will close. However, >> final language will won't be printed >> up until
two weeks prior, >> right? Cuz everything has to go through >> everything has to go through the >> or what it might actually be a little more than two weeks because there's the discussion portion from finance committee and the selectman. However, they don't make recommendations on our
articles. So it would just be have to be decided upon by us prior to print. >> Mhm. >> I know it's not um not necessarily uh >> I guess what I'm saying is we're not meeting until May. >> No, we we said we wouldn't meet until
May if we had no business before. >> So we potentially >> we technically have business before us. >> Yeah. Okay. We need to vote on putting the placeholders in to warrant now tonight. >> I don't believe so.
>> Okay. >> We can just do that. >> Mhm. Like I said, typically we have the the like our housekeeping placeholders anyway, >> right? >> And anyone has the ability to anybody has the ability to put a placeholder. So
I can simply request that we have a placeholder and then you know pending our April vote we can >> choose whether or not to cuz like even at that point we can kind of what we've done in the past is we draft that warrant language in meeting right >> and then make that motion for that to be
the warrant language and the specific amounts and what funds they're coming from and then we can kind of just take it from there instead of I think if we have the ability and and every and when the time comes to approve funding or or deny funding. It's if we have the
ability to move along, like why wait till November if we don't have to. >> So, we'll have to meet fairly early in April, though. >> No, I think we'll be fine with our normal meeting date. >> Oh, okay. >> I'll confirm. And I mean, is everybody amendable to like if we had to move it up a week?
>> Sure. >> I think we'll Yeah, as long as everybody's okay with that. So, yeah, I'll just communicate that to you. I'll I'll get the um I'll get the specific dates of when we need placeholders, when we need, you know, specific warrant article language, and we'll try to work
around it the to the best of our ability. >> All right, that sound good to everybody? >> Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Um I think anybody's on Zoom. I don't no public input unless you want to say something. Just that's a >> I appreciate your time. That's it.
So with that I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> Motion made and seconded. All those in favor? >> I I meeting is adjourned at 5:34. Thank you everyone.